Iranian and Lebanese media reported today that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has revealed that there have been two attempts recently to sabotage nuclear facilities in Iran.

Asqar Zarea’an, the deputy head of the AEOI, reported last week that unnamed ‘enemies’ carried out sabotage acts at the Fordow underground uranium enrichment plant. He claimed that the swift reaction of Iranian security forces foiled the attempt.

Zarea’an told the Iranian daily Khorassan that “recently a series of electronic boards were discovered that had been planted in certain equipment at Fordo nuclear site to carry out sabotage acts in the enrichment processes.”

Fordow acts as a backup site for the Natanz enrichment facility and Iran’s enemies are now attempting to sabotage this backup, Zarea’an explained.

He also pointed to the fact that only sabotage can disrupt the enrichment process at Fordow and not military action since the facility is built deep down under a mountain. Apparently Zarea’an knows more about the sabotage attempts that were recently carried out against Iran’s nuclear facilities, because he already warned in August that ‘enemies’ were seeking to deal a blow to Iran’s nuclear program through ‘new methods and instruments’.

It could be that Zarea’an was referring to Israel. The Jewish State has a special IDF unit that has existed since the government of Yitzchak Rabin in the early 1990’s. The unit is believed to be the major force behind the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged Iran’s enrichment program earlier. The virus is said to have destroyed more than 10 percent of the centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility at the time.

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Speculation about an imminent Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has always focused on an attack by warplanes and special combat units, but the special IDF unit had more than twenty years to develop different methods that could involve Israel’s high-tech industry.

Today Zerea’an again reported a sabotage attempt against an Iranian nuclear facility, telling the Iranian newspaper, Hamshari, that the regime had again foiled a sabotage attempt this time against the Busher nuclear plant.

“One of the technicians from the Russian company responsible for operating the Bushehr plant has been arrested because he tried to carry out a pre-planned sabotage operation,” Zerea’an told Hamshari. He didn’t provide the newspaper with any other details about what exactly happened.

The nuclear reactor in Busher is a Russian design and the Russian firm Atomstroy Export built the plant that was finally opened in 2011 after years of delayed construction works. Russian technicians are still working at the plant.

In September last year, Zerea’an revealed that an unnamed enemy had tried to recruit Iranian nuclear experts via ‘foreign spies’. He said that Iran disrupted the plots.

He reported at the time that ‘foreign intelligence agencies’ tried to recruit Iranian nuclear experts when they were travelling abroad. He claimed that the Iranian experts had reported the attempts upon returning home.

Russian nuclear experts have also been recruited by foreign states to work to covert nuclear programs in the past. In fact, Iran was one of the countries who used spies to recruit Russian experts after the fall of the Soviet Union. An Iranian secret agent succeeded to hire the Russian experts who could be bought for $1,000 a month at the time.

The arrest of the Russian technician doesn’t necessarily confirm the Russian firm is behind the sabotage attempt. It could mean that the same ‘foreign spies of the unnamed enemy’ Zerea’an was referring to, had more success with recruiting Russian technicians.